How experienced are you?

[buccaneer]

i have been writting software since CPM when floppy drives were 8 inches (ie before PCDOS 1.0) and discovered linux with REDHAT 5.0. Mandrake is my choice for Linux OS's & i've been using it since version 8.0. my profession is in Broadcast Media and SysAdmin. check out my first site at www.nimfm.org. I set up and built the network for this community based radio station which runs two linux servers (1:web + Lan server, 2:Icecast server for Streaming media) 1 linux workstation (runs gnome and xmms and is used for accessing MP3s from a samba share) & 4 windows boxs for the numbskulls in the admin office. The experience I gained setting up this lan and my 20+ years of computing is why I call myself GURU.

[Gowator]

I fully understand you, Gowator. Lots of things I learned in Mandrivalinux or Suse or Fedora/RedHat weren't of any use in e.g. Debian or Slackware, so I also had to start over again. The horrible result is that I sometimes suggest a solution on some forum-questions that will work e.g. in Slackware, but not on e.g. Ubuntu or vice versa. But I think this is the price we have to pay when we talk about accepting the "freedom of choice" in Linux. I tried to master all systems but miserably failed and feel sometimes like a noob when logging into e.g. Slackware or Yoper after using e.g. fedora exclusively for several weeks or months. And then there are those many many commands and solutions that you once knew but only applied once or two times in your life and (logically) forgot. And then, two years later, someone asks for the trick that you forgot three weeks ago.... Linux life sucks at times. :P

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well some things are choice related and others are IMHO anti-choice related.

Its great to have choice between distro's but some distro's seem only concerned in themselves not in GNU linux/open source overall.

I don't mean this in an evil empire way, I mean it more like an environmental way.

 

We all share the same planet but many companies basically presume someone else will look after it. The earth is just another resouirce to be exploited that has always been there and always will.

 

I think many commerical companies are looking at Linux like this. Its something to make money off the back of but it is NOT their responsibility, they are not actively trying to hold it back but they are holding ot back through indirect actions.

 

I can see the reason for the Debian like 'update-modules' behaviour which makes sense if being a bit confusing to those from different backgrounds but what I can't get over is the obsession with GUI tools which replace pre-existing multi-distro tools and break them to boot.

 

I don't think it should matter what level a person is at the tools for configuation need not recklessly override common standards because that makes the person fixing the problem a distro-specific expert.

 

If you look how many XP people install their own stuff its a small amount, most get pre-installed XP and Office etc. and the onlky people who can fix it are those who know and understand the MS .com components and CPL plugins.

 

Now, just as linux is hitting the desktops in the real world we don't need a Linux engineer but a Novell Engineer or RH Engineer because they need to know the tools for configuring that distro. (actually haven't tried RH since 7.0 so its just an example) .. This shouldn't be the case.

You should be able to use a common config tool like Webmin or editig files by hand and a distrio shouldn't try and undo your work.

 

Many distro's seem to be doing this as a lock-in for their distro. You get comfortable with the config tools but when you switch to another distro you're lost. This is one thng that hurts adoption of Linux professionally. Imagine a company with expensive SW supported under RH and they but some alternative SW which is only available under Suse.

 

The distro shouldn't matter, its the SW that is important ... whether its for IC design or architecture people need the applications NOt the distro and mostly the users don't even need to know WHAT distro is running or even that its linux.

So now out users choose software B for chip design instead of A because it has new design feature. They expect it will be Ok because it runs linux then the IT people say Ahh but we have noone qualified to support distro X ... its completely backwards,.

[Ironfighter]

this is me - but I¨m having fun :D . Thank you to everyone who helps on this forum I really appreciate it.

[jlc]

I fully understand you, Gowator. Lots of things I learned in Mandrivalinux or Suse or Fedora/RedHat weren't of any use in e.g. Debian or Slackware, so I also had to start over again.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well some things are choice related and others are IMHO anti-choice related.

Its great to have choice between distro's but some distro's seem only concerned in themselves not in GNU linux/open source overall.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well since you haven't used rh in a long time, I'll just tell you there tools are a lot different than mdk/suse. There just small python based tools that are pretty much sed/awk'n files, you don't have to use them, and if you do you don't hose up anything. All the rh admins I know use cli because we don't even install a gui ;)

 

Mdk/Suse might be a different story :)

[jlc]

example

 

cat /etc/sysconfig/selinux
# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
#       enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
#       permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
#       disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
#SELINUX=enforcing
[b]SELINUX=permissive[/b]
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
#       targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
#       strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

# SETLOCALDEFS= Check local definition changes
SETLOCALDEFS=0

 

As you can see, i edited by hand and changed it to permissive.

 

If I open the fancy python-gui system-config-securitylevel

 

It shows permissive, so the extra line and comment affected nothing.

[Guest huckepick]

Only Sophomore.

 

There is much to learn for me.